Rallies against honour killings and jirgas

LARKANA: Several rallies were taken out in Shahdadkot and some other towns of Larkana district on Tuesday against an upsurge in the hate killing of men and women on the pretext of honour under the custom of kari-kari.

Participants in one of the rallies, organised by the Pirbhat Women Development Society (PWDS), started their march from the organisation’s office in Shahdadkot and converged on Koto Moto Chowk, where they staged a sit-in for a couple of hours.

Activists of different political parties and NGOs also joined in the protest.

Speaking to the protesters, Rubina Chandio, Jameela Soomro, Haleeman Brohi and others condemned rampant killings in the name of honour and expressed their concern over ‘loopholes’ in the Qisas and Diyat law that provided relief to killers in honour killing cases.

Some speakers, including Shamasuddin Abro, Wahab Pandrani, Fazal Selro and Abdullah Selro referred to the recent murder of a woman and her daughter in Shahdadkot, and deplored that the area police took least interest in the case.

They criticised feudal lords for leading jirgas to settle karo-kari cases “only to keep their influence intact”.

“The police-feudal lords nexus has made karo-kari a kind of business,” they observed, and called for effective action to stop honour killings. They also demanded amendments to the Qisas and Diyat law to ensure punishment to killers and serious efforts to stop holding of jirgas to settle such cases.